Sunday, July 19, 2015

I Like the Sound of "UC Redding"

I
recently stumbled across a petition that caught my eye.It is advocating for the creation of a
University of California science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
campus in Redding.For those who do not
know, Redding, situated in Shasta County, is the largest city in California
north of Sacramento.It is also the city
where I was born, and the nearest city to the small town where I spent the
first 18 years of my life.I think the
idea of a University of California campus in northern California is a very good
one, and was happy to add my name to the petition.

The
petition’s authors point out that Redding once lost out as the site for the
creation of the first UC campus of the twenty-first century to Merced.That made sense at the time: Merced is
located in the Central Valley, a much more populated region of the state, and
also amongst the poorest regions in the country.

But
there is no UC campus north of Davis.There are two California State University campuses north of
Sacramento—in Chico and Humboldt—but the CSU system is a different beast, with
less emphasis on research, fewer advanced degrees, less prestige, and less
ability to revitalize a region of the state that has more than its share of
poverty and economic travails.

There
are two ideas to tackle.Firstly, the
issue of a new UC campus, and what such a campus might look like.And secondly, the issue of placing one in the
north state.

The
latter makes a great deal of sense.While the population is not booming, there is clearly demand in the
region for an institute of higher education that offers research
opportunities.The construction and
maintenance of such an institution could create much needed jobs in the North
State, and the presence of a research institution could mean more attention to
the economic, social, and environmental issue facing the region.

Northern
California has suffered from abysmal representation at the state and federal
level.It might be more difficult,
however, for know-nothing, anti-communitarian Republicans to serve the region
so poorly if they were also charged with looking after such a vital and vibrant
institution.And north state residents
might develop a greater appreciation for the transformative potential of public
institutions if one of the state’s preeminent institutions was located in their
midst.

The
petition points out that Northern California’s students would benefit from
access to a UC campus.But the truth is,
just as all Californians, including those in the north state, benefit from
world-class universities in Davis, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Merced, Santa Barbara,
Los Angeles, Irvine, Riverside, San Diego, and San Francisco, all Californians
would have much to gain from an additional campus located in Redding.

Northern
California is a stunningly beautiful place, with abundant lakes and rivers,
magnificent mountains and volcanic activity, immense forests, an impressive
coastline, and the upper reaches of the Central Valley.Such a location would attract students from
across the state, and the proximity to such varied natural terrain might well
lend itself to top-tier research in traditional and emerging STEM fields.

If
one reason that I think a “UC Redding” would be a great thing has to do with my
attachment to the region, the other has to do with my attachment to the
institution.I am a UC alum, having
spent four years at UC Irvine and six years at UC Berkeley.This extraordinary institution and two of its
beautiful, stimulating campuses, historically sustained by the citizens of
California, was my home for ten wonderful years.It supported me, challenged me, gave me the
time and the space and the tools to think.It exposed me to fields of inquiry I never knew existed, sent me around
the world, and sent me to a new university to try to do a little for my
students of what it did for me.Leaving
UC was amongst the most difficult things I’ve done, but is also crucial,
because everyone deserves to spend some time in such an environment, and
because the sense of belonging to a larger world of free and disciplined
thought never disappears.

UC
allowed me to meet people from around the state, around the country, and around
the world who were studying and making striking advancements in addressing the
most burning problems—whether environmental, economic, social, philosophical,
political, or technological.

And
it allowed me to meet people asking questions about human or scientific
problems which today seem quixotic but will tomorrow seem urgent because of the
prescience of those questions and the freedom such an institution gives people
to ask them.UC is a model of a
university that is of the world,
rather than standing apart from it.

California
needs more of its students in higher education, and it needs them not just in
the fields of the moment, but in all of those disciplines which combined equip
us to assess and address our needs and condition.

For
this reason, I think that a “UC Redding” should not be a STEM campus, but
should embrace the range of disciplines, traditional and otherwise, that
concern our human condition.

Today,
UC faces incredible challenges.California’s citizens—many of whom attended UC for free or close to
it—have forgotten what it takes to maintain our great universities.They, our Governor, and the Republican Party
are attempting to make UC a leaner, meaner, less hospitable, more expensive,
and more utilitarian place.They have
violated the social contract between one generation and the next, that requires
people to look at our community through a wide-angle lens rather than a
keyhole, and understand how they and those who come after them will benefit
from their investments in education, in research, and in free thought.

Taking
advantage of this neglect, UC is now run by cadres of corporate-minded
bureaucrats who want to slowly privatize the UC so that it will be open only to
those who can pay.Its horizons will
shrink as it caters to the short-term needs of industry rather than the long-term
needs of our state, national, and world community.And students will find it more difficult to
see the beauty of free inquiry that the UC offers as they are funneled towards
“practical” degrees that will earn them the kind of salaries they need to pay
off massive student debt.

Building
a UC Redding could mark the start of a new era for the UC.If Californians put their mind to it, they
could construct a beautiful new campus in the North State which could
revitalize a marginalized region.They
could commit themselves to bulldozing the barriers to access in the form of
obscene tuition levels that they have constructed during some dark years.And they could recapture the dream of an
institution dedicated toward serving the public through teaching, research and
activism.

3 comments:

I grew up in Modesto, and I got my undergrad degree from Chico State. I got my advanced degrees at UCSB. I love the North State, Nor Cal in general, and both the UC and CSU systems. I appreciate your idea in theory, but in practice, look at UC Merced. It is highly underdeveloped. It has not (yet?) brought much to the region, despite the promises. I would prefer to see UC Merced developed along the lines of Davis, etc, before UC Redding is created. It is a huge challenge to develop a UC in populous areas, let alone areas that are far less populated. Just my two cents.

Many thanks for your comment. That's a very real concern. My sense is that development at Merced was hamstrung by the fact that the campus opened at the same time that tuition at UC shot up and public investment continued its long-term decline. I don't think "demand" as such is the explanation for Merced's enrollments, rather "demand" in existing political conditions. That is, students who are able and willing to pay UC's absurd tuition are likely to opt for one of the better known campuses. More of the local students who would presumably like to attend a UC close to home and boost the student body such that it would attract more students from across the state, are probably deterred by the cost and head to CSU or CCC.If it were an "either or" situation (which might prove the case), I would advocate investing in Merced rather than opening a new campus. But the state, if it chose, is perfectly capable of walking and chewing gum, and could lower tuition (and what I assume is the biggest barrier to Merced realizing its potential) and construct a new campus. It's undertaken far larger civic projects in the past (think of the campuses it built in the 1960s), and could do so again. Existing political conditions (an un-reformed Prop 13, an unintegrated initiative system, a Tea Party-esque governor in the form of Jerry Brown) mitigate against it, but I'd like to think that could change. I do wonder how much a purely-STEM (or STEAM as its sponsor is calling it) campus would do economically for north-state region. But there's such a tremendous dearth of work, of public institutions, and of civic life in general, that I feel it could only be a good thing in the long-term.Thanks for reading.

About Me

I am from Northern California, and am the fifth generation of my family to have lived in the Golden State. Now I live next-door in the Silver State, where I research and write about colonialism and decolonization in Africa, teach European, African, environmental, and colonial history, and write this blog, mostly about politics, sometimes about history, and occasionally about travels or research.